Are publicly sponsored religious symbols unconstitutional?

The trees are up, the holiday lights are ablaze in towns across the country, and this week menorah candles will be burning in many a storefront and city square to celebrate Hanukkah. But at two public buildings in Pittsburgh there will be no creche and no holiday candelabrum this year. The religious symbols have been snuffed out as a result of a federal court decision, now on appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court, that has reignited the battle between forces % insisting on strict separation of church and state and those pressing for greater accommodation.